Draw Bar Height No WDH

[tjerrard]

My draw bar with 2in ball on it, attached to the TV, has top of ball to ground height of 22ins. My TT, a Skylark GVWR 3500, specs say the Hitch Ball Height is 17ins. When I attach the fully loaded TT, scaled says 3440#, to the TV the whole rig looks level. Although I do have to shift some weight forward as the tongue weight was light.

I towed today with lighter weights in my TV and TT by about 150# each, moving the trailer "unloaded" (the 150# is what we add to each TV and TT to go on a trip), with some weight, about 70#, shifted forward in the TT and had a very good ride in strong and light winds towing at 60mph. The rig looked level and showed level with a level with the above draw bar/ball TT hitch heights.

Do I need to lower the TV draw bar/ball to match the TT height to have a proper setup?

[Rustic Eagle]

Originally Posted by tjerrard

snip.....Do I need to lower the TV draw bar/ball to match the TT height to have a proper setup?

Under any loaded condition, the TT when hitched should tow level, or slightly nose down for best TV handling results...., so it sounds like your draw bar is accomplishing this.

For reference, RV manufacturer's recommend a loaded tongue weight of 10% to 15% of the TT's loaded weight.

Hope I understood your question correctly, please advise if I didn't.

Bob

[Flyrotor]

I wouldnt change a thing

[tjerrard]

Rustic Eagle & Flyrotor
Thank you both.

Yes you did understand my question. (so you know I miss measured my TV ball height it is actual 19.5ins not 22ins). I'll stay with the draw bar as is. Yes I will move cargo in the TT forward to get a tongue weight of 10% to 15%. I think a tongue weight of around 400-450 is what I need for a good margin. Max tongue wt on my TV is 500#. I will load cargo to get to the TT CVWR, for this TT that will be about 400#.
I am going to load again tomorrow with moved cargo and reweigh & see what I have got the tongue weight too.

Tom

[tjerrard]

Did another weigh and with shifting cargo to the front of the TT I have a tongue wt of 380 with a TT GVW of 3480 which is 11%. Looks OK, now I'll have to take a trip and see how it tows in this configuration.

Tom